Expanding Your Business Internationally? Beware of Privacy Laws!

The prospect of expanding a business into strategically aligned international markets can create a multitude of challenges and unexpected problems that need to be managed before market entry is attempted. One of these "challenges" an international business will confront is, how to deal with the various privacy laws established by host foreign countries. Privacy protection standards in Europe, for example, often carry a higher obligation, on the part of the business, to protect the employee, client, and general public’s private information, than in the United States. Member States of the European Union have repeatedly tried to harmonize the varying laws, amongst each other, by creating more uniformed standards throughout the whole EU, and privacy laws are no exception.

The best example of how European privacy laws can constrict the growth of a business on its continent is the case of Google, Inc. Nearly five years after it was welcomed, with open arms, to build offices and employ people in Ireland, Switzerland, Russia, Denmark, and Poland, Google has found its growth stunted by the web of privacy laws which govern many of those, and other, countries. Kevin J. O’Brien, of The New York Times, wrote an article about this topic, and reports on how Google has been forced to delay plans for product rollouts and new services because privacy statutes prohibit the unauthorized use of "personal images or property." Google has entered into talks with data proteciton advisors of the EU Commission in Brussels, Belgium, to address how they will comply with privacy laws throughout the EU. Google believes that eventually everything will work out, and that they will be able to offer new services to Europeans that are already being introduced in other markets.